Doran Beach (8)

It was our eighth visit to Doran Beach, but this time we had a birthday girl along with us for the ride. We made reservations six months ago, for the campground and for the nicely nearby Bodega Bay Inn, not knowing whether we would be able to keep them. Happily, vaccinations have occurred for the whole family, and for some of us, both shots. Therefore it was decided that a stay in an inn would be safe and fun way for our daughter spend a birthday weekend.

One thing I must say about Bodega Bay is that it is not very pedestrian or bicycle friendly. Because we were staying close by in the campground, we were able to help her out by bringing her takeout and dropping her off at the beach for some solo contemplative time.

Meanwhile Richard did a new bike ride out to Dillon Beach, which neither of us had ever visited before. What a spectacular road Valley Ford Franklin School Road is, especially now, with all the spring greenery and colorful wildflowers. The bucolic narrow road was not very busy at all and meandered up and down pastures all the way to a hard right at Dillon Beach Road. There, you get one small climb and big descent down into the cute little bay town.

We discovered a huge private campground there, called Lawson’s Landing, which I must have noted and dismissed a long time ago because it has not been on my radar as a place to reserve. It boasts something like 1000 sites, though many of them are simply slots right next to each other, divided only by a line of paint on the dirt. The sites that weren’t empty were filled with conspicuously large rigs for the most part. This is clearly a popular destination for family hangouts and big groups. It might not be exactly our speed, but there are some nice places near the water (sites in the 6 and 7 hundreds) that would be worth trying out.

Meanwhile, summer planning has commenced in earnest. It is rather late in the game to be booking sites, so right now we are grabbing anything we can get that is in the general vicinity of where we think we might be. We wouldn’t normally plan a trip that intentionally places us in the southwest in the summer. But Dory2 is already waiting for us in Durango, CO, so we might as well explore some of the area we whizzed past on one of our cross country trips. Last time we were there we melted our real wax LED candles, but we have since replaced those with plastic ones. We’ll see what else we can melt this time. Let’s hope it’s not me.

It was a beautiful windy weekend at the beach for us. Our daughter rates it an “ok” on her meter of places to hang out. She acknowledges the natural beauty, but prefers places where she can walk more. She did note that every place would rate higher without a pandemic happening so that she could actually go into stores and the like. I told her I tried to get her Non Pandemic for her birthday, but Amazon wouldn’t ship it. Maybe for Christmas.

Total miles: 81.1, 13.8 mpg (windy). Site 42 no hookups, great solar, nice views. You no longer have to pay for the dump. And Bodega Dunes dump is still closed.